FIMA Ch50.2: Get Started

At this moment, there was some movement on the small mountain path behind them.

The forest near Huangyang Village was dense and dark, and most people dared not enter. Everyone was curious to see who was so bold.

There was the sound of branches being stepped on, and a few young men in matching attire jumped down from the mountain path. Following them, three or four more people emerged.

It was Shen Changhuan and Gu Zhen with their group.

Gu Siyuan glanced at Shen Changhuan. So this was when they started raising private soldiers for Xiao Jingchuan and the Fourth Prince. No wonder he suddenly returned to Huangyang Village.

To think they planned to raise private soldiers in the forests of Huangyang Village, without any regard for the villagers’ lives!

Shen Changhuan and Gu Zhen both had close ties to Huangyang Village. If this incident were to be exposed, the entire village could be implicated as accomplices, which was a crime punishable by extermination of the family.

Li Xiangtao’s face changed several times when she saw them, and she hurriedly stepped forward, “Zhen’er, why did you go up the mountain? It’s very dangerous in the mountains.”

Gu Zhen didn’t expect to run into his family and quickly made an excuse, “Changhuan hasn’t been back to the village for a long time, so he wanted to take a look. We brought guards, so it will be fine.”

“Oh… I see, oh…” Li Xiangtao replied, but her face was a bit ugly. Because of what happened that day, she was no longer as enthusiastic towards Shen Changhuan.

More importantly, the words she had confidently said in front of Gu Siyuan were instantly contradicted by her beloved son…

“Haha… haha… so funny!”

A clear laugh echoed on the quiet village road and field ridge, startling the birds perched on the branches.

Xie Changyue was never one to swallow his anger. Seeing Li Xiangtao’s expression as if she had eaten a bug, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “So this is what you call hardworking and filial. My husband really can’t compare, hahaha…”

Even the thick-skinned Li Xiangtao blushed.

Gu Er, usually a steady and honest person, couldn’t help but laugh, glanced at his father and elder brother, and then turned and walked briskly towards the village.

Gu Siyuan’s expression remained cold, as if nothing had to do with him, and he leisurely followed his father’s pace, holding Xie Changyue’s hand.

Gu Zhen looked at his family’s obviously unhappy faces, then at Gu Yang and his group’s carefree backs. He roughly understood that his sudden appearance had caused some embarrassing joke.

Such awkwardness seemed to always happen to him since Gu Yang got married…

It was really uncomfortable.

What happened next was unclear to Gu Siyuan, but the next day, Gu Zhen left Huangyang Village early with Shen Changhuan.

The main family also spent some copper coins to hire a few villagers with less land to help with the wheat harvest.

Gu Siyuan became more proficient at harvesting wheat as he went along, eventually even faster than Gu Er.

Gu Er gained a new appreciation for his son’s capabilities.

As estimated on the first day, it took the two of them four days to harvest all the wheat from the five acres and bring it home.

They spent another day harvesting the rice from one acre of paddy field, making it a total of five days.

Next, they would wait for the wheat and rice to dry before threshing.

In one more day, Gu Siyuan’s clothing leave would end, and he would return to the academy to continue his studies.

On the last day, he planned to finish the last bit of the autumn harvest.

Having personally experienced the hard work, he hoped to make things a bit easier for everyone.

He walked out the door and looked at Gu Er, who was drying the wheat, “Father, do you know any blacksmiths?”

Gu Er stopped what he was doing, “There’s one named Zhu in Mei Village.”

Gu Er had many skills, not only weaving but also doing carpentry work to supplement the household income. Most of the furniture required iron fixtures, so he naturally had a good relationship with blacksmiths.

Gu Siyuan handed him a piece of paper, “Father, could you trouble Uncle Zhu to make these items?”

Gu Er looked at the drawing on the paper and muttered to himself, “These fine iron hooks are easy to make, but needing sixty of them is a bit much. What’s this round thing? Looks like a bearing for a cart wheel, just bigger and with teeth…”

Gu Siyuan said calmly, “It’s for making a threshing machine.”

Gu Er’s eyes widened, “A threshing machine? From the name, it sounds like it’s for threshing grain. Is it better than a rice bed?”

Gu Siyuan smiled, “It saves more than ten times the labor.”

Gu Er stood up immediately, put the drawing in his pocket, and smiled broadly, “Alright, wait here. I’ll go find Uncle Zhu to make them.”

The blacksmith probably made such a bearing for the first time, and with the considerable amount of iron needed, it had to be registered with the county office. It wasn’t until the third night after Gu Siyuan returned to the academy that Gu Er came back excitedly with a basket of fine iron hooks and two axles.

Gu Siyuan wasted no time and started working with Gu Er immediately.

Of course, he mainly directed, while his father did the carpentry work.

What he was making was a foot-operated threshing machine.

The principle was similar to that of a bicycle, using a small axle below the pedal to drive a large roller to rotate quickly.

The large roller was a cylindrical drum made of spaced wooden boards, with the surface evenly studded with curved iron hooks. When the large roller rotated at high speed, people could hold the ripened rice or wheat over it, and the hooks would quickly comb through the ears, thus achieving easy threshing.

The key was understanding the principle and making the axle; the carpentry work was secondary.

They worked until midnight, and the finished threshing machine was finally completed.

Gu Siyuan immediately tested it. With a few light pedals, the large roller spun quickly, the hooks combed through, and in almost an instant, a bunch of wheat was easily threshed.

The threshed wheat grains flew onto Gu Er and Mu Xia’s faces, but they didn’t feel any pain, only boundless joy.

“My heavens, this is too fast.”

“It’s like a dream. Who could believe it without seeing it with their own eyes…”

In the past, they used to thresh grain on the rice bed, holding a bunch of rice and vigorously beating it down repeatedly, taking about ten or so hits to clean a bundle.

However, usually after half a day, their arms would be sore and aching. It was a hundred times more exhausting than harvesting wheat.

If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, they would never have believed there was such an easy way to do it.

Gu Er hurriedly moved forward, pushing his son aside, and sat down behind the thresher, holding bundle after bundle of wheat to test it out. The more he tried, the happier he became.

At this speed, what used to be a backbreaking autumn harvest that could take half their lives might now be completed in half a day.

Xie Changyue’s eyes sparkled as he looked at his husband with admiration, “Husband, what are we going to do with this thresher? Sell it to make money, or…?”

Gu Siyuan shook his head and said calmly, “The hardships of the people are many, and it is now the autumn harvest season. Why not report this to the local officials, so that more people can benefit from it!”

Xie Changyue’s eyes shone even brighter, and he nodded deeply, “Husband, deeply aware of Father’s hard work, created this out of filial piety, benefiting all farmers. You are a model son and a model scholar.”

“…” Gu Siyuan.

Although gaining fame was one of his goals, his little husband truly understood him well, a master of praise.

After explaining the key points to Gu Er, Gu Er spent a night overcoming his fear of approaching officials.

Early the next morning, he went to find Old Master Gu. The old man, being their elder and the village head of Huangyang Village, was needed to lead the reporting of the thresher to the county office.

Whether it was the introduction of such a beneficial tool or the appearance of such a filial scholar, it was a great achievement worth spreading for the county magistrate.

So, when Gu Siyuan returned from the academy one day, he found a circle of people gathered outside the Gu family’s blue brick courtyard.

The villagers, upon seeing him, exclaimed joyfully, “He’s back, young Gu is back!”

“Incredible, to be able to make something like this!”

“Gu Er is really blessed to have such a son!”

Gu Siyuan bowed to everyone and then walked straight into the house without looking sideways.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw a middle-aged scholar talking with Old Master Gu and his father. There were also a few soldiers drinking tea, with an item covered in red cloth beside them, looking like a plaque.

Besides them, there were several elderly men with graying hair or beards. According to his original memories, they were elders of the Gu clan.

Gu Er looked up and saw Gu Siyuan. He immediately said to the middle-aged scholar beside him, “Mr. Lu, this is my only son, Gu Yang.”

Mr. Lu immediately stood up with a smile, “What a fine young man!”

Gu Siyuan remained calm, slightly bowing with a composed demeanor.

Mr. Lu nodded, looking at him with even more admiration. Such a young man unmoved by fame and fortune would surely accomplish great things in the future. He began praising him for his noble demeanor, worthy of the magistrate’s bestowed title of “Filial Piety and Loyalty.”

Gu Siyuan thought to himself: The plaque is not awarded by the Wuqing county magistrate but by the prefect of Tongzhou. The speed is really fast.

He wasn’t a pedantic person, so he responded with a few words of praise for the magistrate’s excellent guidance.

Next, amid the sound of firecrackers, the “Filial Piety and Loyalty” plaque was hung in the Gu family ancestral hall.

Old Master Gu, being the village head, naturally didn’t rely solely on his own strength. The Gu clan was the largest in Huangyang Village, so the honor Gu Yang received belonged not just to the Gu family but to the entire Gu clan.

Gu Siyuan didn’t mind this, especially after learning that the county magistrate awarded him personally a hundred taels of silver and renamed the thresher to “Filial Son Machine.”

However, Old Master Gu had mixed feelings. The thresher was created after the family had split, and he felt uneasy about it.

When Li Xiangtao saw Gu Siyuan, her expression was also strange. She seemed to want to say something sarcastic, but it was clear she had been lectured by her family and left in a huff.

She was probably waiting for her son to achieve something in the future so she could regain her dignity.

The news of the Filial Son Thresher spread quickly, almost instantly throughout Wuqing County and Tongzhou.

In these times, reputation was very important for scholars.

And among reputations, loyalty and filial piety were paramount.

In the imperial examination, the academic official would also consider the reputation of the students when determining the rankings.

Gu Siyuan had decided to aim for the “Top Three,” so having a good reputation was necessary.

The next day, after returning to Anping Academy, Mr. Chen checked his essays and proactively asked him about the thresher, then praised him highly.

Juren Qi from the academy also met with him and encouraged him to study diligently.

His classmates even began to show more enthusiasm towards him.

At noon, when Wang Xu sat across from him as usual for their meal, he sighed, “I don’t know where you find the time. In ten days of clothing leave, you not only wrote ten excellent essays, copied nine volumes of ‘The Complete Collection of Classics,’ harvested wheat, and even came up with this amazing thresher.”

Gu Siyuan looked at him and said calmly, “You’re wrong.”

Wang Xu raised an interested eyebrow, “What, did you write the essays beforehand?”

Gu Siyuan shook his head, “The thresher wasn’t made during the clothing leave. It was made just a few days ago.”

“…” Wang Xu.

You’re very precise.

But there’s no need.

Wang Xu looked at him again and said mysteriously, “However, speaking of which, there’s no need to report this good thing to the county magistrate. From the Ministry of Revenue to Tongzhou, all the benefits are taken layer by layer, leaving you with just a hundred taels of silver and a plaque. It’s not worth it. You should have told me directly. I guarantee I could have made it known to higher officials and gotten you more benefits.”

“…” Gu Siyuan.

You are a scholar, mind your words.

However, this view coincides with his own. Gu Siyuan cleared his throat and said calmly, “This is a small matter, no need to trouble you, but soon, I might really need your help.”

Wang Xu smiled excitedly, “Oh, then I will definitely help.”

Study time always passes quickly.

From deep autumn to the snowy white winter, time flows in an instant.

The academy was on holiday again, this time for the New Year, the last day of the year had arrived.

This was also their first New Year as a family of four. Gu Er and Mu Xia, being older, went to bed early.

Leaving Gu Siyuan and Xie Changyue to stay up until midnight, Xie Changyue was already so sleepy that he couldn’t keep his eyes open, but he still stubbornly persisted.

Until he heard a bang, he suddenly jumped up and hugged Gu Siyuan, shouting, “Husband, I hope we always stay this good, and you will always love me and treat me well.”

Gu Siyuan complained with annoyance, “You’re really uneducated.”

Xie Changyue rolled his eyes and angrily opened his mouth to bite him, “When I was in the capital, I was quite famous for my talent…”

Gu Siyuan pulled him into his arms.

Xie Changyue was always afraid of the cold, wearing so many layers in winter that he looked round and chubby, already making it hard for him to move. Now he struggled in Gu Siyuan’s arms like a little white bear, but couldn’t break free.

Gu Siyuan found it amusing and picked him up, heading towards the room.

On his shoulder, Xie Changyue was so angry that he yelled, “I will really get mad, I’m telling you, Gu Yang.”

Gu Siyuan said indifferently, “Really? I’m so scared.”

Xie Changyue got even angrier, “Your attitude is wrong, Gu Yang. Are you no longer attracted to me because my looks have faded?”

“Oh, so your looks have faded already…” Gu Siyuan’s calm, deep voice drifted out.

Xie Changyue was furious, “I’m really angry now, you won’t be able to soothe me… mm…”

However, the angry sounds soon faded into light panting and moaning.

In the end, Gu Siyuan felt slightly regretful that he couldn’t stay up late to see in the New Year. Otherwise, they might have gone from last year straight into this year.

After the New Year’s Eve, the Lantern Festival passed in a flash. There were still occasional cold winds and fog, and the plum blossoms inside the county academy walls were still in full bloom.

The registration and verification for the county examination began.

Not long after, on the morning of February 18th, Gu Siyuan stood in the long line of examinees outside the county school, starting his first imperial examination in life.